52 MANUFACTURES. 



skinny breasts, hangs over the mill, passing and 

 repassing the grain beneath a large heavy rolling- 

 pin of stone. During the progress of the operation, 

 she frequently sprinkles the bruised mass with 

 water, until a fine powdered paste is produced, 

 which, without more preparation, is carried away 

 to be baked upon the kilnlike oven I have before 

 described. It requires some time to make a few 

 pounds of bread in this manner ; and when baked 

 into flat cakes of about one pound each in weight, 

 they are, as might be expected, very heavy, and of 

 a disagreeable acid taste. Whilst grinding, two or 

 three slaves, or women, (for the same term is 

 applied to all,) relieve each other, so that labour, 

 except in the house of a poor man, is not great. 



I saw in Tajourah two old men weaving, who 

 had learned the art in Abyssinia ; also an Arab 

 blacksmith. It is usual for all the young men to 

 be able to make their own sandals. One of their 

 principal occupations in-doors is to make wooden 

 spoons, sometimes carved in a most elegant manner, 

 and fedeenahs, or rests for the head during the 

 night, and which are the constant companion 

 of the Dankalli when journeying. They differ 

 considerably in form from the wooden pillows of 

 the New Zealanders ; but still it is singular that a 

 somewhat similar manner of resting the head 

 during the night is in use among these two distant 

 and distinct nations. The ancient Egyptians em- 

 ployed the fedeenah exactly of the shape of those 



